Ekaterina Panikanova (born 1975 in St. Petersburg) is a Russian surreal artist. She is known for using books as a canvas in her artwork. Reception for her work has been positive. Panikanova currently lives in Italy. In 2015 the Dutch wallpaper company NLXL licensed Panikanova's paintings to create a wallpaper. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekaterina_Panikanova] Ekaterina Panikanova uses old books, school magazines and posters from different eras, found in flea markets in Europe to create little pieces of never before seen art. ...Her work is said to evoke the long lost world of childhood, in a constant effort to find the deepest and most intimate feelings of every human being. A graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts of St. Petersburg, she was one day walking through a flea market when she stumbled upon a 700-page manuscript. “I was struck by the difference between its original purpose and the way it became over time. I bought it and used it to make a painting“, the artist says. “Paper, card and books have a fundamental value in my work. I see them as a body of rules, dogmas, traditions, religious beliefs and scientific discoveries which, right or wrong for their time, human beings had simultaneously enclosed into cages. If Galileo Galilei hadn’t turned the pages of history, man’s blind belief in the theory that Earth was held up by a huge turtle would have eventually caused him to perish. I like working on old books: I like the way that underlines, notes and scribbles enable me to perceive the personalities of their former owners. In Russia, there is a difference between an icon which has been ‘prayed to’ and one which has not; a book that has been read acquires the same energy as an icon which has been worshiped. ...The books that I use to make my paintings generally come from different countries of origin: this way the stories that I tell about the ‘education’ of mankind can be recognized... [http://www.designfather.com/book-art-by-ekaterina-panikanova/] undefined

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